by Jacey Ward
“Circe, wait!” he growled, but before he could speak again, another figure shuffled into the room, dragging a gimpy leg behind him.
“You brought him?” Kalen roared at Evander. Circe gasped and stared at the troll in shock.
Is that why he didn’t like me mentioning trolls? Because he works with one?
Circe felt a slight sense of shame in her gut as she thought about what she had said about the creatures. She had no right to be so judgemental of the beasts, just because they were unattractive. After all, she had never known one personally. But whatever shame she was feeling did not override the fury she had toward Kalen in that moment.
“Yes, sire. I have missed you, sire!” the troll gasped as Circe shoved past the group toward the door. Kalen’s hand shot out and clasped her slim forearm.
“Wait,” he snapped again. “We’re not done talking.”
“I am done talking!” Circe yelled, pulling her arm free. “Obviously you can force me to stay if you want, but I won’t spend another minute in this suite alone with you.”
“You cannot speak to my lord like that!” the troll hissed, his broken body lurching toward her. “He is the leader of the Corpus! You must show respect!”
She looked at the troll, his drooping face earnest and upset, before turning her head toward Kalen. She felt as if the world had slowed entirely, her movements exaggerated.
“Is this true?” she whispered, her heart freezing in her chest. “You’re from the Corpus?”
“He is the leader!” the troll insisted and suddenly, Circe was dizzy.
“Oh gods…” she mumbled, throwing out her arms as if she had suddenly become blind as she felt her way toward the door.
How had she not put it together? Of course, he was the lord of the mafia underworld, he damn near exuded leadership and power.
It had not occurred to her because that way of life was so removed from anything she had known in the Americas. The Corpus reigned in the Old World, but she had never had any dealings with them. Rumors, though, abounded. The organization was powerful and sometimes vicious – it had to be, the Deviants it ruled over were the most vicious of all the Deviant species.
And now I’m in the middle of some obscure mob hit on Uvall? Why didn’t I listen when I told myself to stay away from demons? Nothing good has ever come from demons…Arya just got lucky.
Circe wondered if her envy of her best friend’s life had clouded her better judgement with Kalen, but there was no time to wallow in her poor choices, not when she still stared him in the face.
“Anderly, shut your fucking mouth!” Kalen hissed, but Circe was already gone, running down the corridor toward the elevator.
“Circe! Stop!”
She whirled, her eyes glassy with disbelief.
“What?” she barked. “What could you possibly say to make this okay?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you – “
“Which part? That you’re the leader of the mafia or that you used me?”
At least he has the decency to look away, she thought sarcastically.
“Circe, this doesn’t change anything – “
“It changes fucking everything! You’re not chasing Uvall for the good of the Deviant world. You’re chasing him because he owes you money that you gave him for the purposes of the uprising! You were banking on him winning the civil war and you lost!”
“No – “
“Just leave me alone, Kalen. You’re on your own. Find another patsy to help you with this sick search of yours.”
She was shuddering with anger as she spun back toward the elevators when his voice rang out again, tearing through her heart.
“I can compel you to stay.”
The steel in his voice twisted the knife in her heart but she steeled herself against any emotion, turning toward him, a deadpan expression on her face.
“Your threats might work in the slimy mob hell you run,” she retorted. “But if you force me to stay with you, I will be forced to call on Dante.”
It was the last thing in the world Circe would ever want to do. Having to admit to Arya that she had done such a wickedly stupid thing was more than she could bear.
I am supposed to be the strong one, the protector. I can’t bring this to Arya and Dante.
But she would swallow her pride if the alternative was remaining under Kalen’s rule.
The mobster leader stared at her, his teeth gritting in fury at her threat.
“Yeah,” she spat. “That’s what I thought. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a plane to catch. I’ll send for my bags.”
With a heavy, sick feeling in her chest, Circe forsook the elevator and darted down the fire stairs. She couldn’t bear to look at Kalen for one more minute.
Chapter 8
“Why have you come here?”
He didn’t even recognize his own voice, his fury beyond anything he had ever known in his life.
Evander seemed to realize that he had crossed a line, more so by bringing along the troll than by showing up himself, but it was done and the vampire knew he could do nothing but stand strong in the face of Kalen’s threatening visage.
“I didn’t know you had shacked up with the Valkyrie,” Evander replied evenly. “You’ve been avoiding telling me where to find you - “
“For good reason!” Kalen stormed, his piercing eyes trained on the doorway to the suite as if he expected Circe to return. But he knew she wasn’t coming back. He could hope for it all he wanted, but his worst fears had materialized.
Not only does she think I lied to her, she learned I’m the leader of the most dangerous Deviants in the world.
How could he explain that he didn’t want what had been bequeathed to him? That had he not inherited this from his father – were it not to carry on his family’s legacy - he never would’ve chosen this for himself. But it was the law of primogeniture and he was forced to take over the Corpus when his father had been banished into limbo for finally screwing with the wrong demon.
The third Lord of the Underworld, Severn, had little sense of humor for the pranks which the trolls played and when one had finally gone too far, Kalen’s father had taken the brunt of Severn’s wrath for not containing the childish miscreants as he had been governing.
Now, it was Kalen’s job to wrangle the deranged Deviant sub-race.
It was his heritage – it didn’t make him happy, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Until that moment, he had never apologized for it. At the end of the day, he was still one of the most powerful demons on the planet.
But I have never wanted anyone as much as I want Circe Lancaster. I can’t stop thinking about her and the noises she made while writhing beneath me as we made love. How unbelievably sexy she looked, and how sweet she tasted – her lips, her neck, her skin, her core – everywhere.
He wanted and needed to taste her again. He had never felt this way about anyone before, and it went far beyond the physical desires that made his cock twitch. It was also the conversations they had while watching TV, the way her eyes lit up when she beat him at chess, and the way she laughed whenever Kalen said something funny. It scared him how fast he was falling for her, and how he already missed her.
“Kalen, we need to stay close. Uvall could be found on a moment’s notice and we need to be together. Whatever you thought you had with the Valkyrie is clearly not working out. Why didn’t you tell her who you were?”
“Good riddance, I think, my lord!” Anderly cried, rubbing his gnarled hands together with glee. “She is not worthy of your presence.”
“Go home,” Kalen sighed at the troll. “I won’t need your services for awhile.”
Anderly stared at him in shock.
“No, sire!”
“Kalen, we’ll find another Valkyrie to work with. We have a dozen to choose from, and all can be compelled to work with you.”
“I don’t want another Valkyrie!” he snarled. “I want Circe.”
“My lord,
be – “ Anderly started to say but Kalen cut him off instantly.
“Why are you still here?”
Anderly stopped speaking, dribble bubbling over his gaping lips as he stared at his master.
“Go home. Now.”
“Yes, sire.”
There was a note of such sorrow in his voice that Kalen felt a little bad, but he was tired unto death of having to deal with his subjects.
What about me? One day, do I get to put my needs ahead of all else?
“How did you even track me here?” the demon asked Evander.
“This is what you pay me for,” Evander reminded him evenly.
“I don’t pay you to track me. I pay you to track the beings I want!”
“I know you’re upset, Kalen but you have to admit that time is of the essence right now. The easiest place to find Uvall is in the Americas. Once he leaves here, he can find a million places to hide.”
Kalen didn’t need to be reminded. It was why he was there in the first place.
But he was ready to forget about Uvall and chase Circe into the Old World, to make her listen to him, whether or not she wanted to hear him.
He knew it wasn’t an option. His duties were to the Corpus, no matter how much he hated it.
There was no room for infatuations or relationships, not when the Corpus was involved.
And I’ve always known that. This is why I’ve never gotten attached before. No one is going to be there in the end when they play second fiddle to the mob.
“Kalen, you are still the client,” Evander sighed. “But you have to know what it will look like if you quit hunting him now.”
“If you’re trying to tell me how to do my job, I’m going to put a stake through your heart right now, Evander.”
The vampire threw up his hands.
“I don’t know what’s going on with you,” he snapped, his crystalline eyes flashing with annoyance. “You’ve been weird since you got here. Maybe the smog of the city is affecting your brain but you need to get your mind in order. The Deviants only need one whiff of instability and they will tear you to shreds. Any other group would happily step in and take over your rule.”
“I’d like to see them try,” Kalen laughed bitterly.
“Would you? Because the way you’re going, you’re going to get your wish!”
“What would you like me to do?” he asked Evander coldly. “Wait for you to do your job more patiently?”
“No,” the vampire growled. “I want you to keep your dick out of the local cuisine, at least until Uvall is caught.”
Kalen seethed with rage, but he also knew Evander was right. There was nothing he could do while Uvall was AWOL. If he wanted to make things right with Circe, it would have to wait until after he had things under control.
And by then, it could be too late, couldn’t it? I might never chance upon her anywhere like I did in the Theater District that night. I had a chance with her and I may have just blown it.
“Kalen, are you hearing me at all?”
“How can I not hear you?”
“Well, can you give me a sign on how to proceed at least? I feel like I’m talking to a brick wall with that stoic expression on your face.”
“We need a Valkyrie,” Kalen replied flatly and Evander grunted in frustration.
“So, you weren’t listening at all,” the investigator snapped. “I just told you – “
“I didn’t say we needed Circe Lancaster. Find me another one and we’ll sniff Uvall out as we had originally planned before Circe came around.”
He thought of Circe’s last words to him before the shit had hit the fan.
“Is it possible that he’s located trolls here and is hiding among them?”
Kalen had dismissed the idea, because he didn’t want her to know of his association with them, but what if she was right? What if Uvall was being harbored by trolls?
That’s all I fucking need. Being betrayed by my own subjects.
“Okay, good,” Evander said, excitedly, reaching for his phone for the information stored there. “Now you’re thinking.”
“Now I’m thinking,” Kalen snorted. “What are you doing?”
Evander ignored the jab and pulled up a slew of pictures, Valkyries from all over Manhattan.
“Which one should I contact?” Evander asked and Kalen shrugged, scanning the list indifferently. None of them was Circe. What did he care?
“Fine,” the PI sighed. “I’ll pick one and bring the Valkyrie here.”
Evander turned to leave but he paused from the doorway to stare at his client.
“What?” Kalen demanded, not in the mood for the vampire’s pitying look.
“Sorry about all this.”
Kalen was taken aback by the apology but before he could respond, Evander was gone, leaving him alone to his thoughts.
Dad was right about you, he told himself ruefully. A selfish leader. You almost threw away billions of dollars to chase a girl.
He knew he was beating himself up to reclaim some semblance of sanity, but finding himself alone in the suite he had come to think of as his and Circe’s, he only felt an ache and emptiness deep within. Because Circle wasn’t just a girl.
How is this possible? How can I feel this way about someone I only just met?
Yet he feared he knew why and how; Circe may just be his soulmate. He had probably always known it – deep down. Ever since the first time he’d seen her face staring back at him from a signboard on the highway or her saffron irises boring into him from the glossy pages of an airplane magazine.
Soulmate or not, I need to remember my duty. The Corpus supersedes hurt egos and aching hearts. I will prevail and walk away from this, with or without Circe Lancaster.
He sat up and inhaled deeply, cracking bones in his neck as he rolled his massive shoulders.
I got this, he told himself.
Chapter 9
Landing in Milan was one of the worst feelings to ever grip Circe’s soul, and she found herself standing at the gate without any sense of direction.
The anger had given way to a deep, pitiful sorrow as the plane glided across the Atlantic, leaving her feeling out of sorts and in a dark depression as she arrived at Milan-Malpensa Airport.
I’m in no condition to work but I can’t go home either. Arya will take one look at me and know something fucked up happened. I don’t even want to think about how that conversation would go down.
It was ridiculous really. There was nowhere she couldn’t go; the world was her oyster, and yet, she had returned to work like some kind of Stockholm Syndrome victim.
Because now I have to deal with fucking Analeigh.
She could imagine what a blast of shit she was going to get from the agent when she arrived at the Mandarin Oriental where Cassie and the others had already checked in.
Circe wasn’t even certain how to process everything that had happened in the past few days, her usually unflappable disposition a complete wreck as she worked through everything she had learned.
I slept with the most powerful and deceitful Deviant in the known underworld, she thought, shaking her head in disbelief. Usually my senses are so accurate, so well honed. How did I let this happen?
She wondered if that was a completely unfair assessment of Kalen. After all, if she hadn’t learned the truth so abruptly, would she have ever guessed who he was? He had never been anything but gentle with her.
He was always gentle…except when he wasn’t supposed to be.
A surge of heat washed over her, the memory of riding him on the soft leather sofa of the suite they had shared staining her cheeks crimson. Okay...so maybe she did know how she had let this happen.
You can’t make up that look though – the one he had in his eyes. He wanted me and I wanted him. He wasn’t using me to find Uvall or as some booty call. I think he was drawn to me – as strongly as I was drawn to him.
She wanted to smack her own face, to remind herself that he may have personally fund
ed Uvall’s takeover attempt, one which had almost left Arya’s daughter dead in the crossfire.
He was supporting Uvall – what would Arya say if she ever found out what you did?
Circe swallowed the lump in her throat, trying to figure out what stung the most; the fact that she had involved herself with such a being or that she still wanted to be with him.
You’ll get over it, she told herself grimly, glancing over her shoulder as if she expected him to be standing behind her as he had the first time she had seen him outside the theatre.
You have to get over it.
Stay away from demons. In fact, stay away from all Deviants. Mortals are much easier to handle and manipulate.
Yet even as she thought it, Circe knew it would be a long, long time before she ever considered looking at anyone else; immortal or otherwise.
“Posso andare a prenderle l’auto, signorina?”
Circe shifted her eyes downward to stare at the balding, ill-dressed man.
“A car would be good, thank you,” she replied in Italian. “Do you have one?”
He nodded, appearing relieved that he had been approved for hire and gestured for her to follow him out toward the balmy outdoors.
“You’re Circe Lancaster, yes?” he asked and Circe felt herself tense. She peered at him suspiciously, trying to see any possible Deviant characteristics, but she couldn’t see any.
“Yes,” she replied slowly.
“I am your biggest fan,” he told her, opening the door to a rundown sedan and allowing her to slide in.
“How flattering,” she replied sincerely, slipping a pair of newly purchased sunglasses over her face.
In her haste to leave the hotel, she had only made off with her purse, leaving everything else behind.
She was still debating whether to call for everything or start fresh.
Screw that. I’m not afraid of him and I shouldn’t have to start over because he’s a liar and a snake. As soon as I settle into the hotel, I’ll call the Towers and have them send my luggage here.
“Where to, signorina?” the driver asked, and Circe realized she had been staring into nothingness for at least a minute.